MOSCOW, February 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Head of Russia’s Accounting Chamber Sergei Stepashin is sure it is possible to settle the problem of the offshore zones, to where Russian assets are flowing.
“To close the offshore zones, and that’s it,” he said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily. “All countries should agree – all major countries, all major economies, major businesses – not to be playing offshore zones. We have almost agreed about Cyprus. I do realise that this suggestion is complicated, as money does not smell. Any entrepreneurs first of all thinks about revenues, and only afterwards about the rest.”
There are two ways to follow, “and we are most likely to choose one of them.”
“The first one is to revoke tax preferences from those working in offshore zones. If we calculate the amount in this country only, we are speaking about 1.5 trillion roubles... the second one – we are expecting addendums to the Civil Code. There is a suggestion, for example, to reveal offshore owners /this refers first of all to state-run companies, as for privately owned ones – we are holding for now/. And then let Rosfinmonitoring be dealing with them,” he said.
In 2012, “the Accounting Chamber and the ministry of energy have planned a joint complex of measures regarding energy companies, including major ones, which, as we have learned, are using offshore zones, too. We shall make the research together with a working group of First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov,” he continued. “I believe, by the end of the year we shall learn an interesting result, or even earlier.”